O’Rourke Trial Day 3

by Kaila Lafferty

O'ROURKE DAY 2 PKG.jpg

ASOTIN, WA —

Melvin O’Rourke had a Ruger .45 pistol for the sole purpose of shooting Duane Hettinger, that's according to a witness who took the stand for the prosecution yesterday. Bryan stark was with the defendant, and the victim within hours of the shooting.

On July 30th, 2015 Stark said he spent the day with Hettinger. They separated that afternoon after an argument, but later Hettinger reached out and apologized. "He said he as over at Mel's and come on over and drink and sorry about that it's just hot," said Stark.

He said he went to O'Rourke's apartment and had a drink, but the two continued to argue. Then Hettinger said he was going to go buy more alcohol. "He left to go get the Mike's so that's when I left,” Stark explained. Stark didn't return to O'Rourke’s apartment that night but he knew Hettinger planned to.

Stark then testified, that he knew about Hettinger's stealing habits. "He might have suffered from kleptomania, I don't know," he said.

He also claimed Hettinger stole from O'Rourke, "Duane would show you things that he taken from Melvin?" asked Defense Attorney, Raymond Bottomly."Yeah, he had showed me, you know it was cash,” answered Stark.

He told the jury, he warned Hettinger that stealing was dangerous, and he should stop before he was caught. "And I told him, you're gonna end up getting smoked if you don't slow your roll,” Stark said. "And what did to mean by that, you're gonna get smoked?" asked Bottomly. "You know, you're gonna get shot or killed, I don't know," replied Stark.

Stark also said O'Rourke knew Hettinger was stealing from him, "I said, if he steals from you again you might as well shoot him,” he recalled.

And he knew that O'Rourke was tired Hettinger stealing from him, "he said he was kind of tired of getting ripped off."

Sometime before the shooting Stark says O'Rourke talked about how he had a gun, and that the gun, had a purpose. "Back in August of 2015 what did you tell law enforcement that O'Rourke told you the gun was for,” asked Nichols. Stark replied, "He said it was for Duane if her ever stole from him again."